The special charges include $353 million in additional reserves toward a proposed $499 million settlement, following federal probes into the company's pricing and marketing practices. It took another $220 million charge to retire debt.

The company expects to report 2007 profit of between $1.12 and $1.22 a share. Excluding items, Bristol-Myers estimates profit of $1.20 to $1.30 a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson, on average, expect the company to earn $1.22 a share.

Although fourth-quarter sales fell 16% to $4.21 billion, they were a bit higher than the $4.18 billion Reuters Estimates forecast.

Bristol-Myers said revenue from Plavix, which is sold in partnership with Sanofi-Aventis, fell 53% to $496 million, as remaining supplies of a copycat made by Canadian drugmaker Apotex continued to cut into sales.

But that is an improvement over earlier quarters, when sales of Plavix plunged more than 70%.

Apotex is forbidden from shipping any more of its generic, or clopidogrel, which it introduced in the United States last August, because of an ongoing patent battle in New York federal court. But supplies of its copycat already in warehouses and drugstores continue to be sold.

The highly anticipated trial began on Jan. 22 in federal district court in New York and is expected to last a month. A decision is expected in late 2007.

Sales of schizophrenia drug Abilify jumped 62% to $362 million, helped by growing demand in Europe and the drug's reputation for not causing weight gains seen with rival products such as Eli Lilly's Zyprexa.

Colon cancer treatment Erbitux, sold in partnership with ImClone Systems , jumped 38% to $167 million, helped by its approval last March for head and neck cancer.

Bristol-Myers will host a webcast to discuss results at 10:30 am New York time.